The Texas Longhorn coaches continue to use the spring evaluation period to scour the state for talent, hitting spring practices with hopes of finding new talent that could make a move up UT's recruiting board.

Last week, Texas made a stop by Houston Clear Lake and expressed a strong interest in offensive lineman Blake Blackmar. UT assistant Larry Porter visited Clear Lake and the 6-6, 325-pound Blackmar has now set up an unofficial visit to the Forty Acres for this Friday.

Blackmar, whose father Bruce was a lineman for the Texas Longhorns from 1983-86, will meet with the Texas coaches on Friday prior to checking into his hotel for the UIL Track and Field Championships, where Blackmar will throw the discus on Saturday.

"I guess it was last Tuesday. There was a bunch of coaches there at our practice. The TCU coach was out there. I had gone up there for a visit and he went and talked to my dad," Blackmar said. "When he left all other coaches came over and talked to my dad.

"Coach Porter from Texas talked to my dad for a long time. He invited me to come up and meet with coach (Stacy) Searels. I'm going to cal him tomorrow and he's going to tell me what the schedule is going to be. I'm going to go talk to Searels, meet with them in their office and see what's up."

Blackmar has camped at Texas the last couple years, but he said the contact with the Texas coaches had run cold recently. Blackmar, who played both center and tackle last year, said the Texas coaches indicated that they'd like to re-open the lines of communication.

Blackmar currently holds scholarship offers from Baylor, Kansas State, Missouri, Rice, Texas Tech, Central Florida and Washington State. Though he has a history with the Texas program due to his father and grandfather both having played at UT, Blackmar said he's keeping an open mind.

"Growing up, I was a huge UT fan. I've got the UT shirts, all that stuff because my dad went there," Blackmar said. "I thought they were the greatest thing on earth. Now that I'm getting into the recruiting process and I've got offers, I've been to other schools and seen things I like. If Texas offered, I wouldn't commit right away. I'd probably stick with my plan and kind of wait, go through spring ball and get into summer and make my decision sometime in the summer."

Blackmar has visited TCU, Baylor, Kansas State, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech, and he said two factors will weigh heavily into his decision - academics and the chance for early playing time.

"Academics are going to be a big topic in my family. I've got three uncles who are all engineers. My dad is an engineer. I have three grandparents who are doctors, two of them went to Harvard. So academics are a big deal in my family," Blackmar said. "But I want to go somewhere we're going to win and compete, and there's a good overall feeling, good fan support.

"I also pay close attention to the weight program because that's someone you're going to spend a ton of time with. And I also pay really close attention to the potential to play early. I like to look at that a lot because I do want to play as much as possible."